Does the adoption of Internet digital technologies improve farmers' fertilizer management performance? An empirical analysis based on the China Rural Revitalization Survey

The rapid growth of Internet digital technology has provided a new boost to the field, making it important to examine its impact on reducing fertilizer usage at the individual farmer level. This study uses data from the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey to investigate how the farmers' Internet use affects their fertilizer management efficiency and the intrinsic mechanisms in the context of agricultural machinery and social services. The results show that farmers who used the Internet to obtain information regarding farming were nearly 3.5% more fertilizer efficient than farmers who did not use the Internet. Heterogeneity analysis showed that farmers who plant staple crops, acquire agronomic training, and farm on small scales are more likely to improve fertilizer use efficiency. An analysis of the mechanism indicated that the aforementioned effect was achieved by increasing the demand for social services and enhancing agricultural machinery operation. Therefore, it is recommended to use the Internet and other digital technologies to deepen the division of labour in agriculture and advance agricultural technology, as well as strengthen its deep integration with social services and operating agricultural machinery to stimulate the green effect of digital empowerment.